Mus minotaurus is an extinct species of mouse native to Crete during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene.
It descended from a Mus musculus (house mouse)-like ancestor that arrived on Crete during the late Middle Pleistocene, replacing Kritimys, a large rat-like rodent that inhabited Crete during the Early and Middle Pleistocene.
[4] It inhabited the island alongside a species of elephant (Palaeoloxodon creutzburgi), the radiation of endemic Candiacervus deer, the Cretan otter, and the Cretan shrew (which is still extant).
[1] Mus minotaurus became extinct sometime during the Holocene epoch, with its remains apparently being found in Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites on the island.
Its extinction may have been due to competition with the closely related house mouse introduced to the island by humans during the early Bronze Age.